In an industry where pay rates have been falling substantially over the past decade or so, it’s a refreshing change to hear that at least one photojournalism outlet has decided to increase its rates for paid photographers.

According to a report by AroundTheLens. com, The New York Times has recently increased its day rate from $250 to around $400 for its photographers. The report also states that the media giant also pays photographers working less than a day around $300, though it unclear if this fee has also increased.

In a report focusing on strategy published in early 2017, the paper lamented that ‘Too much of [its] daily report remains dominated by long strings of text,' and emphasised the need for diversification of content and media. The digital arm of the NYT has flourished in recent years, while many of its competitors have struggled with the transition to digital

'We also need to become more comfortable with our photographers, videographers and graphics editors playing the primary role covering some stories, rather than a secondary role,' said the report. This attitude towards photography and visual media is a welcome respite in an era where many newspapers and journalism outfits have begun to cut back on photography budgets or outsource photography entirely to agencies.

A fierce debate was ignited last year in the photojournalism community after the Chicago Cubs were victorious in the World Series. The different leading images from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times were held up of examples of differing attitudes towards keeping photographers on the payroll, as the Sun-Times had recently taken the decision to lay off many of its full time photographers, and subsequently provided a much less striking cover image.

In a time of uncertainty for many photojournalists, the decision of at least one leading news outlet to double down on in-house photography is refreshing.

2017-4-7 03:00